Everyone loves the theatre and some of our longest running plays and musicals have been watched millions of times in productions around the globe.
Theatre is a multi-million pound business and for every successful West End play there are hundreds of school and amateur dramatic performances around the country happening every week.
The origins of theatre and performance date back thousands of years to ancient societies who used the art of performance to entertain, spread news and record history.
Some of the greatest works of Shakespeare are still performed to this day.
So what is the difference between going to see a play and enjoying it and the skill of theatre appreciation? Well, ‘just enjoying’ it is absolutely fine and theatres need people just like YOU to keep filling their seats! But appreciation of theatre means looking at some of the hidden meanings, source material, references, historical contexts and technical terms of the performance. Sounds complicated? Not really! The more you find our about theatre the more you understand that there are themes and common points of reference across all theatre.
By learning about theatre appreciation you can understand the different types of production and see similarities.
You can also understand the huge amount of people who have to get involved to take it from a writer having the initial idea for a play or musical and you actually sitting in you seat waiting for the curtain to rise.
It’s also interesting to compare musical theatre and drama based theatre productions. They take a very different skill set but they still both end up telling a story.
Story telling through dialogue, music and movement are at the heart of the attraction of theatre.
Musical theatre has been dominated by a few individuals, one of the most famous of which is Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. His musicals span a five decade career at the very top of his profession. From Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat right through to Phantom of the Opera, Sir Lloyd Webber has dominated stages across the world. If you’d like to study your appreciation of musical theatre, there can’t be a better place to start!
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